LEWISBURG —
A member of the Union County Republican Committee has filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Department of State charging 85th Legislative District candidate Maurice Brubaker misled the public about his status as a public accountant.
"Maurice has repeatedly used this designation to overstate his qualifications for the state House," said Union Township Supervisor Billy Allred, who filed the complaint.
Brubaker said he did not intentionally try to mislead the public.
A campaign volunteer mistakenly listed him as a public accountant on Brubaker's Web site and an early press release repeated the inaccuracy, he said.
"I have never intentionally misled anyone about my status," Brubaker said. "If there is any misconception in the public mind, let me be clear. I am a senior accountant, not a public accountant. If I or my campaign caused any confusion otherwise, I apologize. I look forward to using my professional experience as a senior accountant when serving as state representative."
Allred's complaint included copies of numerous articles from The Daily Item and from the Web site of Newsradio 1070 describing Brubaker as a "public accountant."
Why didn't he correct the record at that time?
"I don't have an answer," Brubaker said flatly. "It was an oversight. I am not passing the buck and blaming someone else. But when the error was brought to my attention, I changed it. Not once have I ever said I was licensed."
Unlike a licensed public accountant, a senior accountant is not allowed to sign off on any financial documents.
Brubaker has been employed with his father's Lewisburg firm, Robert M. Brubaker Public Accountant, for 15 years and is a member of the Accreditation Council of Accounting and Taxation Inc., and Pennsylvania Society of Public Accountants.
He disputes Allred's claims that he has publicly called himself a public accountant on numerous occasions.
"We have nothing to hide and have run a clean campaign," said Brubaker, who is in a three-way race with Fred Keller and Betsy Snook for the GOP nomination May 18. All are vying for a chance to run in the general election for state Rep. Russ Fairchild's seat.
Allred said that while he supports Keller, he did not confer with the candidate before filing the complaint against Brubaker and has not spoken with him about it.
"The bottom line is, I'm supporting keeping honest candidates in the Republican Party and exposing dishonest candidates," Allred said.
Allred said he publicly disclosed that he filed the complaint because it could take the state up to two weeks to begin looking into the matter.
"By that time, the (May 18) primary election will be over and this will be fodder for the Democratic Party," he said. "As a conservative Republican, I believe we need to properly vet our own candidates and deal with those who are untruthful or unethical. For too long we have been unwilling to call out our own for their misdeeds and as a result we end up as part of the corrupt machine that continues to produce poor candidates."
n Staff reporter Rick Dandes contributed to this report. E-mail comments to mmoore@dailyitem.com.
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Robert Inglis/The Daily ItemSteve Ranck, left, and his wife, Kim Ranck, talk with Maurice Brubaker in Selinsgrove on Wednesday evening. Brubaker is among three hopefuls seeking the Republican nomination in the May 18 primary for a chance to run in November for the state's 85th Legislative District. Robert Inglis
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